Only 10,000 expected at DC Women’s March, amid PR battle and clash with National Park Service

The expected attendance figures have not been previously reported and are recorded within a final permit issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Author:
Mike Valerio

Published:
5:37 PM EST January 17, 2019

Updated:
11:25 PM EST January 17, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — What was once a uniquely American moment is likely to fade into memory this weekend, when the latest Women's March is expected to attract only 10,000 people to the nation's capital.

The staggering scale-back comes amid an ongoing public relations struggle, a dueling march, an unfavorable weather forecast and an apparent clash with the National Park Service.

The latest march will be held in Pershing Park, directly across the street from where the original march will gather Saturday.

Confusion also surrounded where the 2019 Women’s March would gather.

Organizers originally hoped to meet on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Yet the location eventually migrated to nearby Constitution Gardens on the Mall, and ultimately, to Freedom Plaza.

In a message to supporters, the Women’s March blamed the National Park Service for the less prominent location.

“They wanted us to cancel the march altogether,” organizers wrote in a recent email. “We told them we were marching with or without their permission, and we secured a permit to march on Pennsylvania Avenue, past the Trump International Hotel.”

The Park Service then issued a pointed and particularly rare response.

“Any assertion that the National Park Service has encouraged any organizer to cancel their First Amendment demonstration is patently false,” a NPS spokesman told WUSA9.

“For generations, Americans have come to the National Mall to exercise their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights to assemble and be heard. The National Park Service has been clear that our process would protect those fundamental rights by processing applications for First Amendment events that had been submitted prior to lapse of appropriations.”

Contrasting with 2017's demonstration, the largest since the Vietnam era, Saturday’s march will be confined to Pennsylvania Avenue. Demonstrators will follow a route from Freedom Plaza to the Navy Memorial and back, marching in rain and temperatures hovering above freezing.